The government has been forced to rethink its nuclear power programme after Mr Justice Sullivan ruled the consultation process was "misleading" and "seriously flawed".

It is not the first time the High Court judge has clashed with ministers.

Delivering his decision in the High Court, Sir Jeremy Sullivan said "something has gone clearly and radically wrong" with the government's consultation exercise on proposals to build a new generation of nuclear power stations.

Greenpeace, which brought the action, has said ministers now need to "go back to the drawing board" on the issue.

Last year, Sir Jeremy ruled that government control orders on six terror suspects were so strict that they broke Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which outlaws indefinite detention without trial.

The Court of Appeal later upheld the decision that the orders - which kept the men inside for 18 hours a day - were too severe and should be quashed.

In another ruling in May 2006, Sir Jeremy said that nine Afghans who hijacked a plane and forced it to Stansted airport in 2000 should be allowed "discretionary leave" to stay in the UK.

The decision allowed them to work and possibly be entitled to state benefits, despite not receiving full refugee status.

Again, the decision was later upheld - three appeal court judges dismissed an appeal by Home Secretary John Reid.

Drug ruling

Sir Jeremy has been involved in other high-profile cases - in July 2006 he rejected rail firm GNER's bid to prevent a rival company operating on its London to Sunderland route.

He was one of two High Court judges who ruled that schools - not parents or magistrates - must decide whether pupils can be taken out of class for holidays in term-time.

He also ordered that North Stoke Primary Care Trust should provide a woman with her next treatment of breast cancer drug Herceptin - after the trust had originally said it was not convinced of the drug's safety or cost-effectiveness.

Back in 2004, Sir Jeremy condemned the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for the way it treated a farming couple in the wake of the BSE crisis.

At the High Court, he said Laurence and Rachel Banks, from Kent, were the victims of "procedural unfairness" after movement restrictions on their herd nearly put them out of business.

Prince's attorney

Sir Jeremy Mirth Sullivan, 61, has been a judge of the High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, since 1997.

He was educated at Framlingham College, Suffolk, and King's College, London, and was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Suffolk & Cambs Regiment of the Territorial Army in the 1960s.

Sir Jeremy was called to the Bar in 1968, and in the same year started three years as a law lecturer at City of London Polytechnic.

He served as attorney general to the Prince of Wales between 1994 and 1997, and was a governor of Highgate School for 12 years until 2003.

Sir Jeremy, who has been twice married, lists his hobby as the Wotton Light Railway in Buckinghamshire.